First you need is a quick course on exposure values and how they effect the way your camera captures images. There used to be two parameters that could be readily controlled, aperture and shutter speed, which were adjusted to give the proper exposure. In addition higher shutter speed can "freeze" action, aperture controls the depth of apparent focus (the smaller the aperture, though confusingly enough the larger the aperture number, the more DOF is available), the combination of the two controls the amount of light hitting the sensor which will effect the quality of your results. In addition today you also have control over the effective ISO of your sensor, higher ISOs will allow faster shutter speeds to stop more action and more Depth of Field, but above a certain ISO image quality begins to be degraded by digital noise. Everything is a compromise, good choices of the three exposure parameters will give good results but remember you'll have to choose what's most important. Then there's Flash. Flash can supplement the available light or replace it, but the same parameters used in natural light still control the look and quality of the photograph.
You need to realize that auto focus can be your enemy, I find that in automatic modes it always picks a part of a scene to focus on other than the one I wanted, it's especially problematic when you need it most, (usually in marginal lighting situations). Learn when you can trust your auto focus and when you need to take a hand. You have chosen a particularly difficult subject, living creatures with minds of their own, i.e. puppies, you know their habits and behaviors, your camera doesn't you have to pick the point of focus to anticipate what you expect them to be doing next, the camera can't, it generally doesn't know what you're interested in. You have to be aware of how much DOF the lens is delivering as well as where the actual point of focus is. Sometimes you can't get everything in acceptable focus that you want, so you have to choose, once again a compromise. The best way to improve is learn the basics, exposure, and the effects aperture and shutter speed will have on apparent sharpness and movement. Practice focusing manually anticipating the movement of your subject, not an easy thing, I know but there's no way around it. Shoot lots of pictures and show them to people who know a bit about photography tell them what you were trying to accomplish and what your camera settings were. PESOs here can be good for that. You'll get lots of stupid comments, (not the least of all from me), but you'll also get some good advice. The almost got what I wanted photos are often the best to show. Jo Lueck wrote: > I went from point and shoot - I know that the higher the shutter speed > the more light and I now know that the SV setting allows me to set it > so that it captures more light?? > > But really, that's it - green button, or fiddling are my friends! > > > On 4 Jun 2008, at 11:13, Tim Øsleby wrote: > > >> Hei, here from Norway, I'm the mostly harmless guy, here comes the >> norwegian votes. >> >> I think you need to describe your photographic skills and background a >> bit more, before we can offer you some help. >> Are you familiar with the terms shutterspeed and aperture? >> >> MaritimTim >> >> 2008/6/4 Jo Lueck <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: >> >>> Dear All, esp Bill for pointing me in the right direction here... >>> >>> I have a K10D - its nice, its black, I have a really nice bag with it >>> - >>> here my knowledge ends!!!!! >>> >>> To tell a lie I have used the green setting but its not good for my >>> subjects - dogs! >>> >>> I find it harder to use in the home the other day I had to take >>> pictures of new puppies, I put it in auto and turned on the flash but >>> it was not a happy bunny. >>> >>> I really want to master the basics.. and then take pictures as great >>> as >>> Bill!!!!! >>> >>> Thank you for having me x >>> Jo Lueck >>> Boleyn Cane Corso >>> www.canecorso.me.uk >>> www.canecorso.org.uk >>> >>> >>> -- >>> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >>> [email protected] >>> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net >>> to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above >>> and follow the directions. >>> >>> >> >> -- >> MaritimTim >> >> -- >> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >> [email protected] >> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net >> to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and >> follow the directions. >> >> >> >> > Jo Lueck > Boleyn Cane Corso > www.canecorso.me.uk > www.canecorso.org.uk > > > -- Vote for Cthulhu. Why settle for a lesser evil... -- Dr. Jerry Pournelle -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
